Harrisburg police Sgt. Kyle Gautsch spoke to the press this morning, as Commissioner Thomas Carter looked on.
Harrisburg police are asking for the community’s help as detectives try to solve several homicides over the past few days.
In a press conference this morning, Sgt. Kyle Gautsch, the bureau’s public information officer, urged city residents to offer information on three seemingly unrelated homicides and several other shootings.
“If you see something or know something, please call us and let us know,” he said. “We need the community’s involvement. The community is a crucial part of these investigations.”
The homicide victims over the past week are:
- Alrahman Williams, 34, of York, who was shot on the 600-block of Benton Street on Jan. 25.
- Tonya Dorsey, 28, of Harrisburg, who was found dead from blunt-force trauma following a fire call at Hoverter Homes on the 1200-block of Oyler Street on Jan. 25.
- Jason Hill Jr., 22, of Harrisburg, who was shot on the 500-block of Curtin Street on Jan. 28.
No arrests have been made in these homicides, and all remain under investigation, Gautsch said.
“We do have details on all of these, but I’m not going to pronounce what we have,” he said. “I can’t go into the details of the investigations.”
In addition, there were three shootings yesterday:
- a 21-year-old man on the 400-block of S. 14th Street
- a 17-year-old man at 13th and Shrub streets
- a 38-year-old man on the 2000-block of Penn Street, shot during the “sale or transaction of some merchandise”
Gautsch said all three shooting victims are expected to survive.
“As you can tell, it’s been a busy week here in the city, an unfortunate week in the city,” he said. “We do believe that these incidents, with the exception of [two of] the potential incidents yesterday, that they’re all isolated. We don’t have reason to believe they’re connected.”
Gautsch said that it’s unusual to have several homicides in such a short time period, but that crime clusters do occur. He declined to speculate on a motive for any of the shootings, including the one on Penn Street, though several sources have told TheBurg that some appear to be drug-related.
In response, Gautsch said that the police plan to undertake “saturation patrols” in select areas and do whatever they can to solve these crimes.
“The Harrisburg police are not going to stop,” he said. “The detectives will continue these investigations, and the patrol officers, the officers patrolling the streets, are not going to stop.”
To report an anonymous tip, call the bureau at 717-558-6900 or the Dauphin County dispatch or visit the Crimewatch website.
